When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was The Magic Land of Allakazam, a Saturday morn sensation and the reason I first got interested in magic. It starred Master Magician Mark Wilson (he's the guy in the blue tux above) and his lovely assistant/wife Nani Darnell. She's the lady at left. An awful lot of guys who got interested in magic then did so because Nani was so adorable and if pulling rabbits outta hats could get you a woman like that…
The gent in the center is Bev Bergeron, better known as Rebo the Clown, co-star of that show and also, when out of make-up, one of the cleverer, funnier magicians around. He was also Ronald McDonald for a time and spent fifteen years performing in the Diamond Horseshoe Review at Walt Disney World in Florida.
He died two days ago, capping off a lifetime of performing and delighting young and old alike. I had the pleasure (and believe me, it was one…and an honor too) of meeting and talking with Bev a few years ago. Rebo never spoke but he made up for it as Bev, telling jokes, talking about magic and telling stories of an amazing career. I'm ordinarily not a fan of the circus kind of clown but in both identities, he was so full of wit and personality and a real love of making people happy, you had to love both of them.
And starting in 1943 when he was fourteen years old, right up until last Thursday, that's what he did: Make people happy. Thank you for doing so much of that, Rebo.